Exports of rare earths now require special licenses, but Beijing has yet to fully establish a system for issuing them, the New York Times reported.
Archived version: https://archive.is/20250414191508/https://fortune.com/2025/04/14/china-rare-earth-exports-halt-trump-trade-war-tariff-retaliation/
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Contrary to their name, rare earth metals are not rare
They are a finite resource. And China has the biggest reserves.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/rare-earth-reserves-by-country
They have the most known reserves. China has subsidized the rare earth market for decades, so capitalism hasn’t really bothered with their exploration elsewhere; there has been little incentive beyond “national security”.
There will definitely be considerable reserves in Canada, US, Australia, Africa, probably Russia. The problem is infrastructure, expertise, and the volume of highly-toxic pollution that mining and refining them entail.
Everything electronic, and dependent on electronics (everything), is about to see a lot of inflation. Yay!
What do you figure the odds are that any newly discovered deposits in the United States will be found inside of national parks, forests, or wildlife reserves?
To some small extent sure, but most of it was long explored during previous natural gas and oil booms.